Nerd Immersion interviews Kyle Brink

[doctorbadwolf]

OK, so I think we all know that the design team had nothing to do with the OGL fiasco.

But there will be no changes to the executive suite...so you can expect this sort of thing to happen again. they'll just be more sneaky about it next time.

Not really. The faction within wotc that cares about the community won, and won hard. Once the older SRDs are CC, there is literally nothing wotc can even remotely try to do. about it. There is no "sneakier" version of the same thing.

They can lock down and wall off future versions of dnd, but who cares if they do? The game is essentially public property now.

 

[dave2008]

OK, so I think we all know that the design team had nothing to do with the OGL fiasco.

But there will be no changes to the executive suite...so you can expect this sort of thing to happen again. they'll just be more sneaky about it next time.

I disagree. People can and do learn from their mistakes. I hope that is the case here.

 

[Parmandur]

Interesting quote from Kyle talking about the motive to change the OGL and then backtrack:

"...the perceived risk was much greater than the actual risk..."

More evidence that there was always an internal disagreement within WotC over this, and facts changed the ground the different sides were on in the sight if decision makers.

Not really. The faction within wotc that cares about the community won, and won hard. Once the older SRDs are CC, there is literally nothing wotc can even remotely try to do. about it. There is no "sneakier" version of the same thing.

They can lock down and wall off future versions of dnd, but who cares if they do? The game is essentially public property now.

Yeah, exactly. There is no reason to trust in the innate goodness of Hasbro or WotC because they only care (and only ever have cated) about the bottom line. But from a completely cynical bottom line focused angle...in the long run for a luxury game company, the arguments from the people in the company who do actually care about the hobby and the community are going to tend to win precisely because those arguments most effectively serve the bottom line.

 

[cranberry]

deleted

 

[doctorbadwolf]

More evidence that there was always an internal disagreement within WotC over this, and facts changed the ground the different sides were on in the sight if decision makers.

Yeah, exactly. There is no reason to trust in the innate goodness of Hasbro or WotC because they only care (and only ever have cated) about the bottom line. But from a completely cynical bottom line focused angle...in the long run for a luxury game company, the arguments from the people in the company who do actually care about the hobby and the community are going to tend to win precisely because those arguments most effectively serve the bottom line.

Yep. Especially now, and more and more so the more they put into CC.

 

[Condiments]

I disagree. People can and do learn from their mistakes. I hope that is the case here.

I hope WotC learns from this large mistake. However, I'm still skeptical going forward that the future of one D&D still looks turbulent. I mean, I was one of the people that thought all the hate on One D&D when it was announced was over blown until the OGL debacle... then it all sort of clicked into place.

Hasbro still intends to heavily monetize the brand. They've invested tens of millions into this new digital infrastructure and VTT. There is no backing down from that level of investment. The new OGL was probably the tip of the iceberg for what's coming.

The problem has always been that D&D occupies too much marketshare. Any entity that gets that big without sufficient competition has carte blanche to exploit its consumer base with little recourse. It's still way too early to tell they're taking this new edition in a good direction.

 

[Clint_L]

WotC never needed to claw back the OGL to make their walled garden. They just need to keep making DnDBeyond more appealing. An integrated VTT might help that, but I keep arguing that they should open it up to certain 3PP products.

And for those who don't want anything to do with a digital platform, there will always be pencils, papers, dice, and books.

 

[Parmandur]

WotC never needed to claw back the OGL to make their walled garden. They just need to keep making DnDBeyond more appealing. An integrated VTT might help that, but I keep arguing that they should open it up to certain 3PP products.

And for those who don't want anything to do with a digital platform, there will always be pencils, papers, dice, and books.

What they should have tried was rolling out a new STL, but more attractive than the old d20 System one: if Keith Baker could run Kickstarters for Eberron with WotC getting a cut, literally nobody would have objected.

 

[dave2008]

What they should have tried was rolling out a new STL, but more attractive than the old d20 System one: if Keith Baker could run Kickstarters for Eberron with WotC getting a cut, literally nobody would have objected.

What is the "STL?"

 

[dave2008]

Hasbro still intends to heavily monetize the brand.

To be honest, I have no issue with this. DnD (the brand) is severely under-monetized IMO. The question is not should it be more monetized, but how it should be monetized.